A MUM bravely fought off an attacker who smashed the windows of her home, left her children screaming, then assaulted her with a plank of wood.

The Abbey Meads mum-of two, who did not want to be identified in case her attackers seek revenge, was on her own with five children young children when trouble started brewing in the early hours of Sunday.

After hearing a disturbance she politely asked a group of young men to keep the noise down at around 1am Sunday, only to find herself the victim of a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse.

Moments later a brick smashed through her living room window. The gang then headed to the front of the house before the ring leader hit the mum with the weapon as she tried to protect her children.

“When he came round the front I didn’t know they had weapons. It was just myself and the children.

“My daughter was screaming, she was terrified. I had five children here at the time. The adrenaline just kicked in, I was just worried about protecting my family more than anything else.

“He came at me with a massive plank of wood. He raised it up above his head and smashed it down on my knuckles. It left cuts across my hands.

“I just thought ‘I need to take this off him’. I knew if I turned to run he would have smashed it on my head. I don’t know where I got the energy from.

“As I was trying to tackle him he kept coming. I’ve got bruising all down my side and cuts to my arms.

“In the end I got it away from him, but he came at me again and I whacked him twice on the head with it.

“There was blood all down me and him, from both of us.

“He was trying to strangle me, I’ve got bruised ribs and side from where he was strangling, pushing and shoving me and there was blood all over the pavement.”

Eventually neighbours helped free the mum from her attacker’s grasp.

“He had cuts on his head from where I had been fighting him off, but he managed to run off,” she said.

“He was like a rabid dog, totally mad. Apparently he was high on drugs.”

When police officers arrived at the address half an hour after the original 999 call, the attacker and his friends had fled.

But when officers left the scene they brazenly returned, shouting taunts and throwing missiles at the windows.

“They came back later, about nine to 12 of them.

“They had a knife and were throwing bottles.

“It was terrifying for the kids. I was worried about the two little ones, especially because they have both have got special needs.

“It wasn’t bravery, it was just instinct. I didn’t want anything else to happen and the kids were scared.

“They were like a pack of dogs. They smashed a brick through my three-year-old’s window. The buggy was covered in glass.

“There was glass all over her toys. I didn’t realise until the next morning they slashed the tyres of my car too.

“The kids are still sleeping in my bed at night because they’re scared. My little one keeps saying ‘the bad man’s coming with bricks at the window’.”

A spokesman for Swindon police confirmed that they had been called to reports of an assault and a window smashed with a brick early on Sunday morning.

Officers are still investigating and any witnesses who have not yet spoken to police are urged to call 0845 408 7000.